Wave Goodbye to Wordiness

February 8, 2013

Shakespeare wrote that “Brevity is the soul of wit” and he was as correct then as he is today. Wordiness is everywhere—in emails, ad copy, press releases, websites and it detracts from the quality of your writing.

More and more readers are limiting their attention as the sheer number of articles and words they have to read grows ever more exponentially daily. Readers are now skimming and scanning rather than actually reading your content. We understand that we all have clients and bosses who think that the more words the better. But readers are busy, busier than ever. Unnecessary words slow them down and spoil the flow. Every word should matter.

Some words and phrases simply do not work; they’re slackers and take up valuable time and space. Deleting them will not hurt your meaning in the slightest and will often improve the readability and vibrancy of your content.

Consider this sentence: “I am bewildered by your inconsistent use of the serial comma.”
Tacking on any of the expendable phrases below would add nothing. So, if you catch yourself including them in your copy, hit the delete key and save yourself a lot of fuss: